What if
by Pricee
Summary: Alternate ending to Darkness Rising: Part 5. Arcee's wounds from Megatron's shot are too much for her to overcome.


**"Autobots... JUMP!"** The sound of Optimus's voice came through the comm link as Ratchet opened the groundbridge. Then nothing. No sound to indicate that they had made it.

"Do you... think they're...?" Raf questioned the Autobot medic nervously. Looking down at his life-metre on his arm, Ratchet saw that all 4 were alive, but one barely hanging on. But who?  
"4 life signals... one very faint." He said gravely All eyes were drawn to the bridge as Optimus jumped through it. Avoiding eye-contact with all, he watched as Bulkhead came jumping through after him.  
"Bulkhead!" Miko shouted excitedly as she, Jack and Raf ran down from the platform. Bulkhead extended his arm to her and she hugged him, to the best of her ability. Ratchet knew what this meant. He knew who was barely hanging on. Optimus and Bulkhead were both here, there was no-way that Arcee could bring Bee in by herself. So it was Arcee, she was the one who was dying.

Bumblebee ran into the base, Arcee almost lifeless in his arms. Her hand fell down limply as Jack ran to her side. Optimus closed his optics and looked away. He hated seeing any of his soldiers hurt, especially Arcee. She'd been with him for so long. Since before he was a Prime. The Bots all knew. Arcee was Orion Pax's girlfriend. They had almost become spark-mates, but war stopped them from doing so. Prime's couldn't have their spark linked to that of another, in case of either bots death. Despite not being able to spark-bond with her, Optimus and Arcee's relationship was still strong. They still loved each other. It just wasn't allowed for them to be as openly affectionate as they had been in the past. The two had to settle for night-time affections and brief conversations at quiet times in the day. Miko and Raf consoled Jack, his saddened expression spread to both children. Bumblebee bent down so that Jack could see her better. Bulkhead and Optimus stood on either side, Ratchet standing in the middle.  
"We lost one this week. By the Allspark don't let it be two!" Jack stepped forward slowly and carefully rested a hand on Arcee's. They'd known each other less then 7 days, but Jack still felt grief as she lay in Bumblebee's arms. She had protected him, convinced him to come back to the base. She was his guardian now, she couldn't die.

"Arcee..." He whispered sadly "Bulkhead... what happened to her?" Ratchet asked the silent wrecker.  
"Megatron. When he flew away from Boss on top-side of the bridge, he came straight to us. They figured us out from the Nemesis and warned him what we were doing. He came down and started firing at us. She got hit and the Dark Energon wiped her out. We weren't quick enough to grab her." Bulkhead recalled.  
"And Megatron?"  
"Not even he could have survived Ground-Zero." Optimus's optics never left Arcee as Ratchet spoke to him.

Arcee shifted slightly in Bumblebee's arms. Ratchet once again checked his life-metre and was pained to see that her signal was lower then before.  
"PRIME! I didn't get to thank you bots for the save..." Fowler walked into the elevator, he turned to look back to them, "I owe you one... We all do." The doors closed and Fowler was gone, for now.  
Arcee shifted more rapidly. She twitched, then convulsed slightly. She grasped onto Bumblebee's hand and dug her nails in. She groaned in pain.  
"Optimus..." She whispered, almost inaudibly. Prime stepped forward and Bumblebee gently passed her into his arms. Optimus held the small femme close to his spark, she relaxed slightly at his touch.  
"Ratchet... can you save her?" Optimus's pleaded.  
"Her signal is too low Optimus. The Dark energon has spread throughout her whole body. I don't have enough time to expel it. I'm sorry." Arcee twitched again in Optimus's arms. He looked down at her and saw her optics opening slightly. She was weak and tired. He bent down so that Jack could see her again.

"Arcee..."  
"Jack really? There are other motorcycles in the world." You could hear her pain and weakness in her voice. She tried to keep it hidden but they could all see that she was suffering.  
"But... your my first." He touched her hand again. Arcee smiled gently. Her attempts to mask the pain she felt were convincing, but the team knew her too well. They all knew she was hurting, and it broke their sparks to see. Arcee, always so full of fight, looked weak and broken, lying limply in Optimus's hold. Ignoring their pitying looks, Arcee made her best attmept at nestling herself into Optimus's arms. She felt safe. Surrounded by friends, held by her love.

* * *

Optimus lay Arcee down on their berth as he sat down next to her. He was glad for Ratchet allowing him to take her away from the med-bay. It only seemed fair that he got to be with her now, before she was taken away from him. The team had all had their moments with her, saying goodbye without actually saying the words aloud. Saying goodbye is always the hardest thing to do.  
"Optimus... are you OK?"  
"What do you think? I can't lose you. We've been together through so much. When I became Prime, when you got captured. We were together through deaths of friends, family. I hate being away from you Arcee. I can't lose you." He kissed her lips gently. As best she could, Arcee pushed herself up off the berth and clung to Optimus's neck. She hugged him with all the strength she had. "It is my fault this war began. If I hadn't spoken up to the High Council that day, we wouldn't be here now. Right now, we could have been bonded, with sparklings of our own. Not you dying."  
"If you hadn't spoken up, Cybertron would have been ruled under Megatons tyranny. You saved us all. I am just a casualty of this. Yeah, I wanted us to bond. Have sparklings. But this, is where we are now. We've lost bots we cared about, but we have gained new ones to care about." Her voice got duller. She was close to losing the battle. She didn't have much time left.

"Arcee... Look at me," Arcee looked up at him just as he pushed his lips into hers passionately. Optimus picked her up and lay down on the berth with her on his chest. "I love you. That hasn't and never will change. The war has done many things, but it hasn't even slightly changed my feelings for you. You are and always will be my soulmate. My one love." He wrapped his arms around her waist and held her tightly.  
"You're right. Many things have changed because of this war. And we have had our ups and downs, our fights and arguments. But I love you more then ever; it's brought us closer together. I love you Optimus Prime. Promise me something." Her voice weak and raspy.  
"Anything my love, name it."  
"Don't close up in yourself. Take care of the them. Jack, Raf, Miko. Ratchet, Bulk and Bee. Help them. Bee is still so young, he needs you now. Ratchet and Bulk put on a brave front, but they have their own demons. And help yourself. I may be gone, but I'm always with you. I always have been, not matter how far apart we are."

Optimus curled Arcee up into his chest, resting a hand over her head, shielding her from the world. Trying to shield her from what they both knew was imminent, and couldn't stop. "I promise." His voice was low and quiet, as if too loud a volume would cause his voice to crack and break him even more. "Thank you." Arcee's hands crept underneath his chest armour, fingertips stroking and lightly scratching the protoform underneath. Using his free hand, Optimus copied her actions, taking away the smaller pieces entirely. They stayed that way, in silence, for an unknown amount of time. Only stopping when each of them fell into recharge, still cuddled into each other, Optimus cradling Arcee's face.

* * *

Optimus woke up the next morning, Arcee still cuddled against his chest. The normality of the situation momentarily erased any memory of the night before. When it slowly started to sink in, he was over-run with emotion. Sadness, Grief, Anger. "Arcee?" Optimus shook her gently. She made no movement or sound, "Arcee? Wake up. Please, wake up. My love, wake up." He knew that his efforts were in vain. He could feel that her usually warm metal armour was ice cold now. The bits of her protoform that was on show was dull and lacked any shine. But he didn't want to believe that she had died. Died in his arms no less. And he hadn't even known, "Arcee." He bent down to her face and kissed her cheeks. Her forehead. Her lips. Before resting his forehead on hers, wrapping his arms around her and holding her against him. His hands caressed from the top of her head, down her neck, across her shoulders before coming to a stop on her waist as he pulled her as close to him as he could.  
"I will see you again my love."

He opened the comm-link, an open line to the whole team, **"Autobots, Arcee is one with the Allspark."**

* * *

 **Arcee is my favourite character (** Optimus in close second **) so I don't know why I ind it so easy to kill her off... Is this just me? Am I the only one who is this OK with killing off their favourite character? Oh well. Thanks for reading.**


End file.
